You know? 

It is odd how things work. 

I wrote and posted ‘Simple Pleasures’ the other day. 

The beauty of the shower after a long, hot ride. 

This one is similar in one way but different in another way. 

I am the last person you want to ride with when you see a storm. 

‘It is going the other way.’ 

‘It will miss us.’ 

‘I don’t think it will amount to anything.’ 

Twenty minutes later, we will be hiding in a ditch to avoid a tornado. 

I do not check the weather for every ride I head out on. 

If the forecast is for a sunny week, I will leave it at that. 

But lately, the weather has been odd. 

The days are hot and beautiful, and then a ‘storm’ comes out of nowhere around four or five in the afternoon. 

Yesterday. 

I was out on a long ride. 

I turned around to head home. 

When I did, a black sky awaited me. 

I thought of my options. 

I took a few back roads and managed to outride it. 

…By metres. 

A couple of big drops, that was about it. 

What I had not anticipated was the storm that came an hour later. 

There were no options. 

I would have to ride into it and through it. 

A couple of close bolts of lightning and some loud bursts of thunder signalled I was in for a doozer. 

A doozer it was. 

I felt a few BIG drops of rain. 

Five minutes later, I was riding through rivers. 

The sky was so dark for five in the afternoon. 

There was no light on the horizon. 

No signs that it may pass quickly. 

I rode on. 

I know not to stop. 

If I stop under a bridge, getting going again can be excruciating. 

I was soaked to the core. 

Keep riding. 

My clothes clung to me. 

But here is the thing. 

I was smiling. 

There is a stage you get to when you cannot get any wetter. 

Once you get to this stage, it is kind of fun. 

The ride instantly changes. 

My mindset changes. 

It is a whole new ride. 

I have forgotten about the sunny one I had an hour earlier. 

As I got closer to home, I thought of my ‘Simple Pleasures.’ 

The difference between ‘Simple Pleasures’ on a hot sunny day and ‘Simple Pleasures’ on a stormy day, is that on a stormy day ‘Simple Pleasures’ take longer to accomplish. 

I wish I lived in the country. 

I would just get naked at the door and put everything straight in the washer. 

Once, the bike was clean. 

Once, I had everything in the washer. 

Once, I cleaned up the mess in the house I made. 

‘Simple Pleasures’ begins. 

It is the same thing. 

A nice warm shower. 

Plenty of soap. 

The fan roaring. 

Cheese and crackers. 

Shepherd’s Pie for dinner. 

There is one thing I have noticed about the ‘storm rides.’ 

I do not realize that they take a lot out of me. 

At ten o’clock I was nodding. 

At ten thirty I was in bed. 

At 7:15, my alarm went off. 

I thought I should check the forecast for today’s ride. 

30% 

I am good with that. 

I will do the same ride and ride it just like I did yesterday. 

‘I even put my belt in the washer.’ 

Insert storm cloud emoji here. 

‘There is another way to ride.’